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talypollywaly's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.25
Aside from his language being unnecessarily dense at times: has this guy never spent time around high schoolers?
The majority of people who stopped reading poetry after high school forced only Shakespeare upon them-and had poetry soured for them for many years after that- will give you a very simple reason as to why "people hate poetry."
Lerner writes with the assumption that the people who Hate poetry are people who have spent hours studying it, only to shun it.Â
Most people don't know shit about poetry, but what they do know is enough to resent it, and the weird elitists like Lerner- who try to expouse its beauty without ever getting down to the level of the masses who resent it- aren't helping to convince them.
You could replace "poetry" with "novels" and those of us who hated Hemingway in high school would still be ignored. Lerner ignoring the entirety of this population just seems to prove Lerner's very narrow-minded point: You can only hate poetry if you love it? Or does he really mean you can only hate poetry if you have an English degree?
The majority of people who stopped reading poetry after high school forced only Shakespeare upon them-and had poetry soured for them for many years after that- will give you a very simple reason as to why "people hate poetry."
Lerner writes with the assumption that the people who Hate poetry are people who have spent hours studying it, only to shun it.Â
Most people don't know shit about poetry, but what they do know is enough to resent it, and the weird elitists like Lerner- who try to expouse its beauty without ever getting down to the level of the masses who resent it- aren't helping to convince them.
You could replace "poetry" with "novels" and those of us who hated Hemingway in high school would still be ignored. Lerner ignoring the entirety of this population just seems to prove Lerner's very narrow-minded point: You can only hate poetry if you love it? Or does he really mean you can only hate poetry if you have an English degree?
tevreads's review
4.0
There seems to be a constant heralding of the death of poetry, even a conceited hatred for the supposed pretentiousness of it (I myself have only just started reading poetry outside of the handful I studied back in school, having similar thoughts).
Interestingly, Lerner looks to lamentations of the lack of universality some poetry possesses, the inability to capture hearts and minds like the the great Leaves of Grass, of every atom of me belonging to you. Even so, to say Whitman speaks for "us", including slaves, seems flippant, but a universal voice taken as an ideal proves a worthy exercise. Now, the attempts of poets to strive for an individual voice is hindering the popularity and appreciation of the form. I haven't read much poetry at all, but maybe this 'exclusivity' is one of the reasons I have shied away from it.
Overall, Lerner provides a thought-provoking argument, compelling as seems to be the case with all his writing.
Interestingly, Lerner looks to lamentations of the lack of universality some poetry possesses, the inability to capture hearts and minds like the the great Leaves of Grass, of every atom of me belonging to you. Even so, to say Whitman speaks for "us", including slaves, seems flippant, but a universal voice taken as an ideal proves a worthy exercise. Now, the attempts of poets to strive for an individual voice is hindering the popularity and appreciation of the form. I haven't read much poetry at all, but maybe this 'exclusivity' is one of the reasons I have shied away from it.
Overall, Lerner provides a thought-provoking argument, compelling as seems to be the case with all his writing.
jmltgu's review
4.0
Picked up in place of a more instructive book on the same subject, this brief criticism (more an exploration, albeit with sharp edges) felt unique and playful throughout, with a pace just quick enough to keep me turning the page, but not so much as to let me pass through without the pang of regret for want of a nice pencil or, at the least, a highlighter.
Probably the best exploration of poetry I’ve read, and I’m still debating whether the parts that bothered me should or not... or if I even care.
Probably the best exploration of poetry I’ve read, and I’m still debating whether the parts that bothered me should or not... or if I even care.